COB 5

A Farm Experience

Looking for an eco-friendly stay not too far from home, with nature and organic ingredients to ensure you get the best of the experience they have to offer, then look no further. Cob 5 in Gholvad is new and promising

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

Corn on the cob, is everyone´s favourite. I discovered it in America over three decades ago, at a marina, where these golden corns were bubbling in a crockpot and the black guy who sold it to me, dunked it in molten butter and handed it to me with a flourish. And now it is most freely available everywhere in India, every nook and corner! A movie at Inox is not complete without a cup of this steaming corn in butter delight. Being Indian and slightly spoilt, we like our corn off the cob! Cob, the central cylindrical woody part of the maize ear to which the delicious, nutricious kernels are attached.
 So what did you think when you saw the heading of this article, Cob 5? To be honest, if I did not know better, corn is what would come to my mind! But "cob´ here really means to beat or to strike and it´s a word attested in England in the 17th century when they were making these charming earth homes using mud and straw; thatched cottages, get it? Think Wales, think Dublin... And the technique was to bang and strike this mud, clay, straw and water concoction and beat it into place. And so the term, cob house.
It may seem incredulous and unique but cob houses were being built all over the world from centuries ago. In the Middle East, perhaps even in the 14th century, a classic example is Shibam in Yemen where these "breathing homes´ stand tall even today and have in fact received the UNESCO status.
Cob 5, 14 kms off Dahanu in Maharashtra, just before you enter Gujarat, is quite a marvel. A labour of love of one determined individual, a man called Sadiq Gaziyani. With a single purpose in mind he set out to create five earth cottages, setting for himself a challenging deadline. What is baffling is he had no idea how to build these mud homes but he educated and armed himself with knowledge from watching hundreds of videos on YouTube on the subject. And he achieved his end by personally pitching in with the heavy duty labour involved, in the bargain gifting himself a body many men would spend months in gyms for, stressing it out, yearning to get that physique.
Sadiq took just eight months to create this state of joy, that we may enjoy, living amidst rustic surroundings, close to nature. Yes, it is now a running commercial establishment. Though formerly it was Sadiq and his wife Saba´s personal farmhouse.
I was there early April and though a bit warm, I was enjoying the atmosphere. As will people of similar mindset. Each cottage has its own private sit-out area, cordoned off by large palm leaf fences and that is where I made myself comfortable with a tall glass of Shandy.
"What made you decide to do this?" I asked Sadiq, sitting on a swing outside my cottage-hut, which is themed turquoise blue. The four others are yellow, orange, red and purple.
"Must have been a lot of hard work. Tell me, what is the process involved?" I asked. "Cob is a natural building material which includes subsoil, water, fibrous organic material, typically straw, and sometimes lime. The contents of subsoil naturally vary, and if it does not contain the right mixture it can be modified with sand or clay. All this is beaten together, stomped upon, made into a mash, so to say, and then slapped up into walls. Of course the process starts much before that where you carve out the earth to mark the boundary of the walls, the area of the cottage. This has to be reinforced with stones where you do have to use cement and sand to strengthen the base to withhold the weight of the wall and roof, the entire structure."
But you made large bricks, 2 ft. X 2 ft. out of the cob concoction, right? Tell me about that. "Yes, there are two ways of doing it. One where you keep beating the cob in place, allowing it to dry layer by layer or like we did, making and baking the cob bricks in the sun and then loading them atop each other, inserting wooden frameworks for the door and windows. When that is complete, the plastering of the walls happens, with more of the same cob mix."
Must have been fun I thought, doing the interiors, creating different art forms on each of the cottage walls. All the five cobs have a different look; shape, size, colour. Even the bed you sleep on is made of the natural material, though thankfully not the mattress. Had that been the case it would have been the princess and the pea story!
So while it is natural and rustic, the amenities are in place. The bathroom is decent, in size and fittings, with fresh white towels, bathrobe and carpet slippers neatly stacked on the Ikea stand, all of which is the handiwork of Saba.
Since Cob 5, in its earlier avatar, was a running farm, the charm is in the dense greenery. Growing every which way. The pathways have been weaved in according to the plantations.
So this is how it works, you have a central dining room, large, bright and airy, where the guests go for the three meals, all cooked by a professional chef. Opposite the dining hall is a small swimming pool, no deeper than four feet all over and therefore safe for non swimmers to indulge in some masti or just cool down. There is a sit-out to the left also made of straw roof.
Around this area is where Sadiq indulges in bee-keeping. He has placed here and there bee boxes and they actually work! I was thrilled to bits to buy a small bottle of the REAL STUFF. Pure honey! Now where can you find that. Honey buff that I am, my trip was made. And if that wasn´t enough to give me a natural high, the next morning I drank nectar. The sap of the tadgola tree. Neera, it is called. Fresh as morning dew, a taste which defies description. I was having neera after 40 years and believe me I would drive back another time, just to drink more of this stuff. You do know if neera is kept for a few hours it turns to toddy, the alcohol that villagers consume to forget their woes...
Driving to Dahanu takes about three hours from Bombay if you leave by 7 am. It´s on the Bombay-Ahmedabad road. Add another half hour if you take a break at Kamat´s for breakfast. I highly recommend, this particular South Indian eatery which serves excellent fare. From this point, Cob 5 is just an hour away. And the last 45 minutes as you swing off the highway is a particularly pleasant drive, makes sense to cruise not zip on this coastal side road, take in the views. Remember the idea is to always make the journey a destination. You keep stress at bay, that way.
Well, all in all Cob 5 has been quite a discovery.
What is nice, especially if you have kids is the inculcation of the concept of a farm life. The opportunity to let them see the quails, ducks and chicks, and dogs and cows that Sadiq breeds. To introduce the concept of food and how it grows, I think is something we must teach children as early as possible. So you can take them to the vegetable patch and point out the different plants. Explain to them how slow the growing process is, tell them who a farmer is and how he toils so we may eat. Hopefully by the time the children become young adults they will learn to respect farmers and give them their due.
Who knows these very same children may have their own cob farms one day. And the world will be a better place for it!

Cob 5
Kolpada, Gholvad Dahanu Road, Gholvad, Maharashtra 401702
Mob: 0 98700 46245